Electronic commerce has made it easier for a consumer to obtain information and/or make a purchase of a product or service from an online seller. However, if the customer desires to compare the products/services offered by different sellers, the customer usually must interface with each seller's website one at a time in order to determine which seller's product/service is the one best suited to the customer's needs. At each interface, the customer must enter information, data, preferences, and the like which can be tedious and time consuming. Additionally, each of the sellers may have certain restrictions or limitations on their products/services such that the customer must alter his or her criteria for each seller thus making the ultimate comparison between the various products/services overly complicated. Furthermore, there is generally only one mode of communication available to the customer for any particular seller, e.g., online, telephonic, in person, etc. thus making the process inconvenient and time-consuming as the customer must finish the interaction once it is begun or risk having to restart the interaction from the beginning.
Another problem faced by the consumer is that pre-purchase and after-purchase resources of typical online sellers are offered in a disjoint manner thereby requiring the consumer to maintain separate contact points for such things as cross-sell benefits and opportunities, follow-up servicing for the purchased product/service, and potential future upgrades or downgrades as the consumer may desire. Since these, and other, pre-purchase and post-purchase services are usually an important consideration to a consumer when deciding to make a purchase, the inability to adequately take these services into account due to the arrangement of typical online businesses places a serious burden on the consumer. The resulting inefficiencies of making a purchase usually works to the detriment of the consumer as he or she, being daunted by the effort necessary to adequately vet a purchase, must make a decision based on incomplete, or perhaps even misleading, information.
The present disclosure describes novel systems and methods for overcoming the above-mentioned problems and shortcomings faced by a modern consumer. The present disclosure describes novel systems and methods for a customer to receive information and/or purchase a product or service while interacting with multiple vendors through a single contact/agency. The customer is able to communicate with the agency through a variety of communication modes. The agency adapts the customer's input as necessary to meet the requirements of the vendors and the agency returns information to the customer so that the customer can conveniently interact with the multiple vendors. The agency may also create packages from the information received from the vendors and present these packages to the customer to ease the customer's burden of reviewing an abundance of information. The systems and methods allow for the customer to stop and restart the process at various points using various communication modes. The agency has the ability to present the customer with prospecting, sales, service, upgrades, cross-sells, up-sells, and other pre- and post-purchase services at the single point-of-contact agency. Thus, the efficiency of the information-gathering evolution for the consumer is greatly increased and the consumer is conveniently presented with relevant information without having to individually perform tedious information-gathering for each of the relevant prospective sellers.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide a system for providing information to a customer, from one or more predetermined sellers via one intermediary agency, for choosing a product. The system includes a first module for receiving from a customer a first set of information regarding a product, such as, but not limited to, a customer request for an online quote for a product or service including customer-specific information and requirements, an identification of the customer, an online banking identification of the customer, if such identification exists, etc. The system also includes a second module, which is operatively connected to the first module, for providing a second set of information to the customer based on the received first set of information. The second set of information may contain more specific information regarding the product/service desired by the customer. As a non-limiting example, if the customer is interested in purchasing a car insurance policy, the second set of information may contain requests such as the type and number of vehicles owned by the customer, whether the customer rents or owns his or her home, etc. The system also includes a third module, which is operatively connected to the first module, for receiving and processing first customer data regarding the desired product. Continuing with the non-limiting car insurance example, the first customer data typically contains information specific to the desired car insurance, such as the type and amount of car insurance coverage desired, and may contain information such as a desired deductible limit and/or a desired maximum premium payment. This “raw” information received from the customer may need to be processed by the agency so that the various predetermined insurance agencies with whom the agency will be interfacing will be able to return insurance information for the customer that is relevant to the customer's request. The system also includes a fourth module, which is operatively connected to the third module and to the one or more predetermined product providers, where the fourth module sends first processed customer data to the one or more product providers and receives first product data from the one or more product providers in response to the first processed customer data. Still continuing with the non-limiting insurance example, the first product data typically contains insurance quote information which is based on the first processed customer data.
Additionally, the third module sends the first product data to the customer and receives a product choice from the customer in response to the first product data. The third module also receives and processes second customer data regarding the customer's product choice. The fourth module also sends the second processed customer data to one of the product providers associated with the customer's product choice, and receives from the one product provider second product data in response to the second processed customer data. The third module also processes the second product data and sends the second product data to the customer.
Optionally, the third module receives from the customer an acceptance of the second product data where the acceptance includes customer payment information; the fourth module sends to the one product provider an indication of receipt of the customer payment information; and the third module sends to the customer an indication of purchase of the product choice, such as, but not limited to, an ID card.
It is a further object of the present disclosure to provide a system for providing information to a customer, from one or more predetermined sellers via one intermediary agency, for choosing a product. The system includes a first module for receiving from a customer a first set of information regarding a product, such as, but not limited to, a customer request for an online quote for a product or service including customer-specific information and requirements, an identification of the customer, an online banking identification of the customer, if such identification exists, etc. The system also includes a second module, which is operatively connected to the first module, for providing a second set of information to the customer based on the received first set of information. The second set of information may contain more specific information regarding the product/service desired by the customer. As a non-limiting example, if the customer is interested in purchasing a car insurance policy, the second set of information may contain requests such as the type and number of vehicles owned by the customer, whether the customer rents or owns his or her home, etc. The system also includes a third module, which is operatively connected to the first module, for receiving, via the first module, first customer data regarding the desired product and for processing the first customer data. Continuing with the non-limiting car insurance example, the first customer data typically contains information specific to the desired car insurance, such as the type and amount of car insurance coverage desired, and may contain information such as a desired deductible limit and/or a desired maximum premium payment. This “raw” information received from the customer may need to be processed by the agency so that the various predetermined insurance agencies with whom the agency will be interfacing will be able to return insurance information for the customer that is relevant to the customer's request. The system also includes a fourth module, which is operatively connected to the third module and to the one or more predetermined product providers, where the fourth module sends first processed customer data to the one or more product providers and receives first product data from the one or more product providers in response to the first processed customer data. Still continuing with the non-limiting insurance example, the first product data typically contains insurance quote information which is based on the first processed customer data.
Additionally, the third module sends the first product data to the customer, via the first module, and receives a product choice from the customer, via the first module, in response to the first product data. The third module also receives, via the first module, second customer data regarding the customer's product choice and processes, if necessary, the second customer data. The fourth module also sends the second processed customer data to one of the product providers associated with the customer's product choice, and receives from the one product provider second product data in response to the second processed customer data. The third module also processes the second product data and sends the second product data to the customer via the first module.
Optionally, the third module receives from the customer, via the first module, an acceptance of the second product data where the acceptance includes customer payment information; the fourth module sends to the one product provider an indication of receipt of the customer payment information; and the third module sends to the customer, via the first module, an indication of purchase of the product choice, such as, but not limited to, an ID card.
It is still a further object of the present disclosure to provide information from a business to a customer for assisting the customer in choosing a product. The method includes: receiving from a customer a first set of information regarding a product, where the first set of information is received via a first computer interface communicating with the customer over a computer network; providing a second set of information to the customer via said first computer interface based on the received first set of information; receiving first customer data regarding said product; processing, using a microprocessor, the first customer data; sending the processed first customer data to one or more product providers via a second computer interface; receiving, via said second computer interface, a reply from at least one of the one or more product providers in response to the processed first customer data; determining if the reply includes first product data and if so, sending, via said first computer interface, the first product data to said customer; receiving, via said first computer interface, a product choice and second customer data regarding the product choice from the customer in response to said first product data; processing, using said microprocessor, the second customer data; sending, via said second computer interface, the processed second customer data to one of the product providers associated with the product choice and for receiving from the one product provider, via the second computer interface, second product data in response to the processed second customer data; processing, using said microprocessor, the second product data; and sending the processed second data, via said first computer interface, to the customer.
Additionally, further embodiments of the present subject matter include: receiving from the customer an acceptance of the second product data including customer payment information; sending to the one product provider an indication of receipt of the customer payment information; and sending to the customer an indication of purchase of the product choice.
In another embodiment of the present subject matter, if the determination of whether the reply includes first product data results in finding that the reply does not contain first product data, then sending to the customer a notification that no product data was received; receiving and processing third customer data regarding said product and sending the processed third customer data to the one or more product providers; and receiving first product data from the one or more providers. Alternatively, if the determination of whether the reply includes first product data results in finding that the reply does not contain first product data, then receiving at a customer contact sales center a telephone call from the customer; recommending to the customer changes to the first customer data; and processing the first customer data and providing the customer with first product data.
Still other embodiments of the present subject matter further include setting up an account for the customer with the business; and providing product information to the customer based on the product choice.
Further embodiments of the present subject matter further include determining if the customer is an online client of the business; determining a status of the customer if the customer is not a current online client of the business or if said first set of information is not verified by the business, including determining if the customer is an offline client of the business and if so, presenting a first content to the customer, otherwise flagging the customer as a pending customer; and establishing for the customer credentials which allow the customer to save a third set of information so that the customer may later resume choosing a product via an online channel, an offline channel, a telephonic channel, and combinations thereof.
The above advantages, as well as many other advantages, of the present disclosure will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description.